In this Sam and Max Save the World review we are faced with a remastered version of a game that came out in 2008, to which Skunkape Games has given a touch of HD polish. Both the original creator, Steve Purcell, and several members of the original development team were involved in this project. This game has a special place in the video game industry, because due to its success, it was the game that gave Telltale Games the opportunity to reach the big leagues.
And yet it was never the studio’s most popular game. With the demise of Telltales, a remastering of this game seems like a great tribute to that memory, allowing the game to reach a much larger audience. AND the work that Skunkape Games did is really amazing. Sam and Max Save the World includes all the episodes together, with a significant improvement in lighting, graphics, lip sync, cameras, and also a remastered soundtrack.
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Sam and Max Save the World review
The remastering work breathes new life into Sam and Max Save the World, with a character twist that fills them with humor, and encourages players to feel part of the absurd plot the game is telling. The most positive thing about this installment is the fact that you find all available episodes. You can access them from a single menu. Also, you can repeat the chapters you want if you want to find a collectible that has not been found.
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As for the game as such, well, Sam and Max Save the World is a point and click narrative adventure, in which you will have to solve the puzzles armed with creativity and the interactions that the game gives you. These types of games, in a genre that have never been too popular, belong to a very specific niche, and are usually played mostly on PC. All in all, this version of the game works well enough on console that you don’t have too many problems.
A gameplay full of humor
Sam and Max Save the World offers a gameplay adapted to work well on consoles, although not unbelievably. The game chooses to allow you to handle a character, being the right stick the one that allows you to interact with the elements of the environment. Which despite being somewhat uncomfortable, works. Above all there are problems with objects that are too high and also those that are too close, but I insist, it can be done.
As for what you can do in this game, well that’s defined by genre. You enter a stage, you have a problem and you have to solve it without being given many prompts. You must solve everything trying to use your intelligence as best as possible. The key in these games is your story and the way you tell it. And in that Sam and Max Save the World has its own stamp of humor. You have a good time together with these two law enforcement officers who seem more like scammers, with their black humor all over the place.
Visual gags are also a success, placed by all the scenes to which the characters always respond with funny dialogues. As for the story as such, it is certainly crazy. The episodes take you to a casino, a television set, the White House, and even the Moon. The rules of his universe are elastic enough to allow Max to become President of the United States. The complete lack of realism is part of the charm.
The puzzles are quite varied and some come to surprise you for good to the point that not only are you struggling to solve a problem, but you are also amused by its twisted logic. The objects of the world have to be understood within the logic of the game, and although this makes it a lot of fun, sometimes it can also be a problem.
Humor is not enough
Sam and Max Save the World has a main problem, it is the fact that can be repetitive for various reasons. Each episode begins with Sam and Max in their office, on the same street. And that same street will take up a large part of most of these. Which, of course, ends up tiring. Besides this, there is another important problem and it has to do with the work on the elements on stage. It seems that the same dedication was not put into all the details of the game.
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This creates problems when solving puzzles, because it may turn out that inconspicuous objects on the background of the office and the street suddenly become something important. Items like a coffee pot, a coat hanger, an unused door, and a set of posters, which you’ve seen many times and were of no use in previous episodes, suddenly turn out to be the defining element. And you don’t consider them as possible solutions.
Another problem with puzzles is that they can use a logic that is too twisted, sometimes unnecessarily difficult to solve of the problems. For example, many times you will find that elements that must be used together, but that there are not enough reasons for you to assume that union. This could be defended as the touch of this game which is nonsense in every way, but within its genre, this is a flaw that could prevent many players from finishing it.
conclusion
In the Sam and Max game series there are great games that lead to this pair of good characters to live adventures without a doubt fun. Sam & Max Save the World is an important moment in the series, even if it is not the best game in the series. Its crazy story, its black humor will always amuse you. And if you like point and click games, this should definitely be a candidate to reach your library. Its flaws are clear: solving puzzles can be more difficult than it should because the logic of the game can be an obstacle.
Besides that, some of the game’s episodes are not interesting enough, so you’ll only finish them to find out how the game goes on later. And finally, the controls, which while they work, are still uncomfortable. All in all, the remastering work that Skunkape Games did is undoubtedly excellent, and all the flaws that the game has do not respond to the work done by this studio.